It began with music. Most of my fiction does. I am an unabashed, full fledged music geek. You can tell that from the music reviews I sprinkle throughout this site.
Anyway, the title “Fur & Gold” is the title of a song by Bat for Lashes, the musical project of Natasha Khan. The song is about something else, but the image is so evocative, that I immediately thought of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast.” That fairytale was the basis for a beautiful film by the French artist & poet Jean Cocteau. Cocteau produced a dreamy, dark-tinged fairytale movie that adheres to the original. Cocteau is also known for his frankly homoerotic pen and ink drawings. From many accounts, Cocteau was in love with the actor Jean Marais. So I had an idea of realizing the homoerotic tensions felt by Marais and Cocteau in this version. The first image that came to me was of a miraculous rose. Roses figure in the transgressive work of experimental writer Jean Genet.
Fur & Gold combines all of these influences. I hope that you enjoy it. Thanks to Thomas Drymon for the spectacular cover art!
The eBook short is available world wide in the Amazon Kindle shop. ePub and iBook editions will be available shortly!
Craig Laurance Gidney 
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